Under fives need learning assistance

Posted
October 08, 2013 23:04:00

A new report into early childhood has found that one in five Australian children need assistance with learning when they start primary school to prevent them falling behind and developing life long problems.

EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: New research into early childhood has found that one in five Australian children are starting primary school with learning, behaviour or development al problems that haven't been identified before. The report by the Benevolent Society calls for early intervention in vulnerable families to stop the under 5s from falling behind and developing lifelong difficulties. Primary schools are often unable to cope with children with serious issues. Now welfare agencies say they need to intervene before the age of five to have the greatest impact.

JOHN STEWART, REPORTER: Debbie is a mother with three children under the age of 11. Last year she wasn't coping and the situation started to deteriorate.

DEBBIE, MOTHER: I wasn't coping well. I was screaming with the kids and me screaming at them and then them screaming back which caused me to scream more.

JOHN STEWART: Her 3 year old son had a speech development problem and one of her daughters was struggling to learn the alphabet. With help from early intervention specialists Debbie was able to calm things down at home and get her children's learning back on track.

CHRISTINE SMITH, FAMILY SUPPORT WORKER, THE BENEVOLENT SOC: Archie was having some speech problems and his behaviour was escalating but all he needed to do was pick up a few words to help him communicate to people about his needs and yeah, he's a different child now and that he can speak. Now Debbie's like "Whoever taught this child to speak?"

JOHN STEWART: The Benevolent Society says Debbie's family is an example of the way early intervention can prevent problems with learning and behaviour from snowballing.

But not all are so lucky. The report says many vulnerable families with young children are not receiving help. In fact one in five Australian children are beginning school with a key learning or developmental difficulty.

FRANK OBERKLAID, MURDOCH CHILDREN'S RESEARCH: If one in five children is arriving at school already in some sort of trouble, what we're expecting schools to do is to compensate for what happens in the years before the children get to school and it's an impossible task. They're behind the eight ball. They can make some difference but the brain development research tells us that the developmental trajectories are established in the years before the child gets to school.

JOHN STEWART: The report says 15 per cent of Australian children live in families where both parents are unemployed and many disadvantaged families cannot afford to send their children to preschool.

FRANK OBERKLAID: And we're not talking about making 3 year olds good readers or teaching French to 4 year olds, we're talking about the foundations of future academic success. We're talking about the building blocks of literacy, we're talking about children learning to socialise with other children, to manage their impulses. They're extraordinarily important.

JOHN STEWART: The report also says that many disadvantaged families are not receiving help.

FRANK OBERKLAID: If you go into most communities in Australia, in fact all communities except the most remote ones, there are services there. In fact if you mapped the services in some communities there are scores and scores of services. Just because you have the services there doesn't mean that people use them. There are many, many barriers: There are financial barriers, there are transport barriers, language barriers, cultural barriers, etc, etc. So that's the first thing. There's often a mismatch between the service system and the people who don't access them.

JOHN STEWART: The Benevolent Society wants a rethink of how services are delivered.

ANNE HOLLONDS, CEO THE BENEVOLENT SOCIETY: What we try and do in an ideal situation is to collocate those services and integrate them into places like an early childhood facility or a primary school where all parents go, where there's no shame or stigma attached and where you're going to then be able to access people at an earlier stage before the problems have escalated to become more serious.

JOHN STEWART: The report also makes a simple economic argument. Helping children early in life costs far less than letting problems escalate, leading to adults being stuck in long term unemployment. Debbie says 12 months of early intervention has had a major impact.

DEBBIE, MOTHER: I'm more confident in each of the children now because they know what is required and they know if there's an issue to speak up because if you don't speak up then it's just going to get to the point where it's going to be too hard to fix.

DEBBIE, MOTHER: Without early intervention, Debbie says she may have lost her children to foster care. Now she's confident her family will stay together.